Sustainable Development in Human Environment—Current and Future Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable development occupies a key place among the development priorities of global societies and economies. In today's world, sustainable development becomes a kind of compromise between environmental, economic, social and health goals that determine the survival and well-being of the present and future generations. This means securing resources in the form of natural, man-made material, intellectual and social capital. The social aspect, which is usually equated with education and gaining the ability to solve social and health problems, is a particularly important challenge for present and future generations. The challenges faced by humans in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and after it seem to be extremely important.

The time of the pandemic has shown that the human living environment is a combination of many overlapping areas of social life, constituting one specific organism. The production and food security of societies has become practically on a par with health security. The often-disrupted food or drug supply chains caused by the pandemic have influenced and continue to influence a more sustainable approach to the challenges ahead. The pandemic showed sensitive points in economic and social life and showed which challenges we will face in the future.

Public health protection during the pandemic has been put to a severe test. The main task was to stop the rapid spread of the virus and minimize deaths; therefore, the current important issues that can help prevent such situations in the future are, among others, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health practice or the dynamics of innovation in minimally invasive therapy in the modern era. One question—"is the pill mightier than the knife?”—remains important to pharmacological treatment and invasive therapy now and in the future. We hope we will be able to answer them. As part of the Congress, issues related to health promotion and prevention, COVID-19 and infectious diseases, prophylaxis of diseases, health behaviors, vaccination or primary care issues will allow us to describe the current and future challenges in sustainable development in the human environment.

The health care system within the framework of sustainable development should meet current health needs but also be able to face new challenges. The importance of this problem has been demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Health care systems had to deal with a new, very dangerous problem of infectious disease, which forced a change in the manner of providing health services. In order to reduce mortality and limit the spread of the disease, resources have been directed to fighting the pandemic. It made it possible to help infected patients and protect healthy people from infection. Luckily, in less than a year, vaccines appeared that played a large role in limiting the spread of the disease. Later, more and more widely available drugs for the treatment of outpatients appeared. This significantly changed the possibilities of dealing with subsequent waves of the pandemic. Unfortunately, at the same time, not all diseases were treated in an optimal way, which resulted in the accumulation of a healthy debt. Health debt is the accumulated impact of changes in health behaviors during the pandemic that will have long-term negative effects on health. This problem arises from delayed or missed preventive screenings, delayed treatment of existing diseases, forgone chronic disease management activities, and changes in health behaviors that have a negative impact on health (for example, increased alcohol consumption and reduced physical activity). The changes in health behaviors caused by the pandemic could erode advancements made in chronic disease prevention and control, including cancer prevention and smoking cessation.

Rural areas and agriculture play a significant role in the economy around the world. They are the place of life and work of a large part of society, where food is produced, as well as non-food raw materials used in many branches of industries and energy production. The changing climate and the rapid development of industrial agriculture in highly developed countries have created ecological threats and social problems. This type of agriculture contributed to the formation and accumulation of environmental pollutants. Among the consequences of increased agricultural production, including the increased use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides, there is an accumulation of their residues throughout the food chain, and hence in food consumed by humans, and this, in turn, affects the quality of human health. Therefore, it is extremely important to take into account the elements of sustainable development in agricultural production, and hence food, i.e., reducing its negative impact on the environment of human life.

The evolutionary but visible nature of changes in the human environment is a natural process caused by the need to adapt to the changing reality as well as the economic and social environment. Therefore, it is important that this Special Issue becomes a collection of scientific studies and valuable recommendations that will help to design and propose a model of the sustainable development of human environments, as well as to meet current and future challenges in the functioning of health care, especially in the aspect of COVID-19 pandemic and healthy food production in harmony with the natural environment.

Dr. Piotr Prus
Prof. Dr. Roman Rolbiecki
Prof. Dr. Krzysztof Buczkowski 
Prof. Dr. Arkadiusz Migdalski 
Guest Editors

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• minimally invasive therapy
• pharmacological treatment
• prophylaxis of diseases
• health
• public health
• environment
• risk factors
• quality of life
• health behaviors
• smoking
• vaccination
• COVID-19
• primary care
• climate change
• sustainable development of rural and urban areas
• reduction of poverty and social exclusion
• employment and unemployment issues in rural and urban areas
• sustainable agricultural production
• food security and food safety
• water needs of plants
• irrigation and drainage
• water deficits
• yields of crops
• multifunctional development of rural areas